Background: Several studies have shown that morbid obese patients have poor health-related quality of life. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of bariatric surgery (biliopancreatic diversion with duodenal switch) on health-related quality of life for morbidly obese patients.
Methods: 48 patients (26 women and 22 men, mean age 37.4, mean BMI 51.5) completed the Short Form 36 (SF-36) before and one year after surgery. Paired t-tests were used to analyze differences in SF-36 scores before and one year after surgery.
Results: Morbidly obese patients had very poor health-related quality of life (SF-36) before surgery compared with norms (p < 0.001). One year after surgery, all SF-36 dimensions had improved significantly (p < 0.001).
Conclusions: The morbidly obese patients in this study had very poor health-related quality of life compared to norms, but they experienced considerable improvement after bariatric surgery.